FORESTRY. 15 



mining props pass over the Railway yearly, and of these the greater 

 portion is exported for use in the Transvaal mines. The bark is 

 exported from Natal in the form of roughly-ground chips. Other 

 outlets have been sought for the Wattle timber, particularly paper 

 pulp. The reports ot the trials made in 1899, however, are not 

 favourable. The wood is too hard for mechanical pulp, and has been 

 found unsuitable for chemical pulp by the sulphide process. The 

 soda process yields a coarse pulp of inferior quality. 



The total present yield from the Black Wattle plantations, 

 including bark, pit-props and firewood, is put down at not less than 

 100,000 yearly. The 10 shares of the Town Hill Wattle Company 

 at Maritzburg, whose fine plantations I visited in 1903, were then 

 quoted at 100 ! The average cost of these Wattle plantations is 

 set down at 6' per acre. And it is considered that for land well 

 suited for Wattles from i to 6 an acre may be paid. It is now 

 twenty years since the Black Wattle was first planted in Natal. 

 The Wattle is fit to cut from five years upwards, the average cutting 

 time being ten years. The yield naturally varies much with the 

 different plai tations, especially as many of the early plantations 

 in Natal have been planted in unsuitable localities, but the average 

 may be taken at 5 tons of dry bark and 30 tons of dry timber. 

 The price paid for this bark at Dalton, the centre of ihe Noodsberg 

 district, now averages from 6 to 6 los. for bark in bundles, 

 ground and bagged i more. Black Wattle firewood fetches up 

 to i per ton, put on the railway ; good pit-props double this price, 

 or 2 per ton. 



The forest expenditure provided on the current year's budget 

 amounts to 9,028, and the Conservator of Forests also administers 

 the two allied items of expenditure, viz.: Fruit trees, 2,752 ; 

 game reserves, 1,176. 



FORESTRY IN ORANGIA. 



The Orange River Colony consists of elevated treeless plains 

 so subject to drought, frost, and drying winds that tree-growing 

 is a matter of great difficulty. Nevertheless, the beauty and 

 comfort of trees in such a country, and the necessity of doing 

 something to replace the large importations of timber, have been 

 fully recognised at Bloemfont in. In 1903, Mr. J. S. Lister made 

 a forest tour in the country, and his report was followed by the 

 founding of a Forest Department, which will doub less soon develop 

 beyond its present American modelling. Orangia Forestry is in 

 charge of Mr. K. Carlson, an able and experienced officer, formerly 

 in the Cape Service. He is assisted by a staff of three or four 

 foresters and seven probationers, one of whom has been 

 sent to the Yale Forest School to obtain a professional forest 

 training. Plantations are being formed near Bloemfontein, and 

 in the only part of the country where trees can be grown without 

 great difficulty, that is to say, the Eastern frontier bordering Basuto- 

 land. Here, two or three large Government nurseries are in process 



